Wakefield Trinity and Super League desperately missing supporters, says forward Tinirau Arona

This week was set to be the first time that Super League clubs could welcome fans back into stadia at a limited capacity, after a number of pilot events had been approved for the latest round of league matches.

However, the introduction of tighter Covid-19 restrictions from the Government last week scuppered those plans, with the potential for those limitations to last until March.

Arona and Wakefield will play in front of a crowd this weekend, however, as they travel to the south of France to face Catalans Dragons.

Fans have been allowed to attend sporting events in reduced numbers for the past number of months in France but Arona is looking forward to when Trinity supporters can return.

“It is really tough at times without the fans,” he said.

“When you are in the middle during the game, you don’t notice because the game is so fast and you get lost in it. Times when you are behind or when you score a try, that is when you notice the crowd, and the atmosphere and feeling they bring, is missing.

“I am missing the crowds being there but I am looking forward to when they do start coming back. It is something that our team and the game is definitely missing. It is exciting to go over to France and play in front of some fans, I am looking forward to it.”

Wakefield are the only club without a win since Super League resumed at the beginning of August.

Their latest defeat came on Friday as they were beaten 28-16 by Wigan Warriors. Trinity will have taken plenty of positives from the fixture, however, after they dominated for large spells and had led 12-0 midway through the first half.

The only thing they lacked was some cutting edge in attack and Arona insisted: “I think it was good to see a reaction from us players. We had a big chat after losing the game against Huddersfield.

“We had a really good week leading up to that game and we made a few adjustments at training. The 17 players that went out there and played against Wigan, you could see the fire was back in the team.

“For the majority of the game we were probably the better team but unfortunately it wasn’t good enough to get the win at the end.

“We can take a lot of positives out of that game, I was disappointed that we didn’t win but happy with the way we responded to the last couple of weeks. Hopefully now we can keep building on that performance.”

Catalans beat Trinity 58-0 in Super League in August and knocked Wakefield out of the Challenge Cup with a 36-24 victory and Arona is keen to stop the Dragons completing a hat-trick of wins over Trinity.

“In the back of my mind, I know we have lost two games to them and I wouldn’t want to finish the year with three losses to Catalans,” he added.

“It is going to be a physical battle but we can go there with a bit of confidence after last week’s performance. Hopefully we can string together an 80-minute performance to help us get the win.”

Arona scored in last week’s defeat to Wigan, his sixth try in 103 Super League games, and said: “I enjoy scoring tries, it doesn’t happen very often. I think I have only scored a handful in my career. I try and cherish every try I do score. That one was a bit weird because you aren’t allowed to celebrate.

“Usually when you score you have all the players jumping on your back but this time it was more about thinking what the next job was.”